403 Forbidden

Pitched during a meeting of the New Orleans Civil Service Commission, the proposal softens the administration's position on certain contentious issues. But the cornerstone of the overhaul, the elimination of the so-called "rule of three," remains, and it's as controversial as ever with public-safety unions.

The Civil Service Commission, a five member board, must sign off on the rules for them to have the force of law over the approximately 3,700 city employees covered by the commission's merit system.

The commission didn't vote on the measure and implied that any action on it might come as late as July.

The rule of three is so contentious because many city workers, according to union representatives, see it as the bedrock protection in the city's Civil Service system.

Here's how it works:

When a job opens up or it's time for a promotion, the Civil Service Department administers an "exam," usually a written test, but sometimes a combination of a written test and an oral test.

The job candidates are then ranked in order of their score, and the city is bound to hire or promote from the top three.

That may sound objective, but it often makes it hard for managers to hire and reward the best workers, who aren't necessarily the best test takers, said Alexandra Norton, director of organizational effectiveness for the city and the overhaul's architect.

The state system did away with its own rule of three years ago, Norton said. Today, managers are able to hire any candidates who meet minimum qualifications and pass the examination standards set by the State Department of Civil Service, she said.

To illustrate the problem of the rule of three, Norton gave the example of an office worker, a middle-aged woman she described as an excellent employee, a self-motivated go-getter with a Master's of Business Administration degree. Hoping to reward the woman with a promotion, her supervisors encouraged her to take the test necessary to move up, which she did. Her score wasn't high enough to put her in the top tier of candidates, Norton said, so there's no way for her supervisor to promote her.

"So we are going to lose her. She's leaving, because of the test," Norton said.

Many of the union representatives who spoke at the meeting, however, said doing away with the rule of three would introduce too much subjectivity into hiring and promotions.

Donovan Livacarri, an attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police gave an example of his own. The Civil Service Department recently offered the sergeant's exam for the New Orleans Police Department. More than 60 took the test, he said, but there were only around 30 open slots.

Among them was a young officer who attended Thursday's commission meeting, Livacarri said. The officer scored poorly. "He told me, I didn't get promoted, but at least I know why," Livacarri said.

A high-ranking officer's son-in-law also took the test and finished too low to qualify for a promotion, Livacarri said. Without the rule of three, which forces the city to hire and promote based on the test performance, the officer with the family connection may have been promoted, while the young officer may have been left to wonder why he was not.

City officials also said that the rule of three can frustrate efforts to improve diversity.

By way of example, Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin spoke of a recent promotional exam for the position of district chief in the Fire Department. While 34 percent of the passing test scores belonged to black firefighters, only 10 percent of the top scores were earned by African Americans.

Kopplin's example enraged Nick Felton, a black captain in the NOFD and the president of the firefighters' local, who compared Kopplin's remarks to those of Donald Sterling, the disgraced owner of the Los Angeles Clippers who was caught on tape telling his woman-friend not to bring black friends to the team's games.

Kopplin suggested that "African Americans are not capable of high achievement on these tests," Felton said. "That's just not the case. Look at me. I'm an officer."

Kopplin, who is white, said that there is research that has found some standardized tests to be biased in favor of white applicants. To see that, one need look no further than the Fire Department's racial makeup, which is far from reflective of the city's population as a whole, he said.

Were the city able to look at promotions holistically, including work history and education, Kopplin said, the city might have been able to pull up one of the black officers who passed the test but didn't finish high enough on the list to be eligible under the rule of three.

Several city managers took the lectern during the meeting to express their frustration with the rule of three. Among them was the city's Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux.

Speaking as a supervisor rather than a watchdog, Quatrevaux said that the entire system is built around the assumption that managers are "bad people trying to do something wrong." Rather than tying their hands, managers should be given the flexibility they need, and the results of their work audited to see that they are doing their job, he said.

Quatrevaux called the rule of three an example of "bureaucracy" run amok.